A colleague recently decided to replace a rotting windowsill. He didn’t want to hire someone, so he researched what he needed to do, talked to friends who had experience, then did it himself.

As soon as he finished the windowsill, he noticed he needed to paint the window frame. As soon as he painted the window, he noticed the other windows in the house needed to be painted. And so on and so on. Success became about making the entire house look as good as possible.

Earlier this week at a client’s healthcare conference, the featured keynote speaker was Super Bowl-winning quarterback Peyton Manning. What interested me most in his remarks was how he, as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, remained so devoted to learning throughout the course of his career. And that willingness to learn was described as one aspect of what made him an outstanding leader.

Reports circulated last week that one in three GoFundMe campaigns were set up to help people pay medical bills is an amazing—though depressing—statistic. According to the CEO of the popular crowdsourced fundraising platform, more than $650 million is raised on the site every year for medical bills alone. And, in the past eight years since it began, the site has raised more than $5 billion from 50 million donations.

You’ve heard a lot about marketing personas, but how well do you understand their power and potential? Simply put, personas are fictional representations, or proxies, of your customers. By humanizing your audience and zeroing in on their particular interests, personas can be helpful marketing tools for creating more relevant and engaging content.

“May you live in interesting times” sounds like a friendly toast you hear at a wedding reception. However, the saying is actually an ironic “Chinese curse.” The irony? Interesting times are times of great change and challenge during which we move from one crisis to another. Indeed, times that aren’t interesting are peaceful and calm.

If you’re lucky, you’ve found one person at the organization you’re marketing your services to who is a champion for your solution. You’ll probably need that person to carry you on their back, like a Sherpa guiding you up a mountain, for a year. How can you help and encourage them along the way?

What is failed marketing? It can be the inability to share a story that matters to the intended audience.

On Tuesday, voters in Nashville overwhelmingly rejected a proposed transit plan to address congestion in the fast-growing city (Hammock’s hometown, and home to many of you). There are many reasons why the referendum, despite its support from some of the city’s corporate forces, failed. But the lesson marketers should learn from the referendum is this: Don’t tell the wrong story.

We’re all waking up to how much of our personal data is owned by other companies. We wanted the benefits and convenience offered by these online companies, but in the light of a new day, it doesn’t feel so good. Let’s just say that the hangover has set in.

When talking to prospects and clients about their content marketing, we usually discuss various marketing automation platforms, such as Hubspot, Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Infusionsoft, etc. Companies often voice the following frustrations with these platforms: